INNOVATE2020

SURREY

WHEN BUILDING SUCCESS

Place MattersGLOBALMEDTECH PIONEERSGUILDFORD’S IMMERSIVE ECONOMY ISROCKETING

INSPIRING GENERATION Z

Copyright © 2020 Surrey Research Park. All rights reserved.

INNOVATESURREY

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SURREY RESEARCH PARKThe Jewel in Guildford’s Crown according toVice-Chancellor of the University of Surrey, Max Lu PLACE MATTERSCEO of Surrey Research Park, Dr Malcolm Parry looks at the value of research parks as business enablers NEWSSpotlight on Success - A year of global innovation, world-class accolades and international partnerships from Surrey Research Park GLOBAL OUTLOOKA must for UK Entrepreneurship – Dr Adam Marshall, Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce looks at the current business environment and the future of technology entrepreneurship in the UK BUSINESSES FLY USING VIRTUAL REALITYImmersive technologies are taking off on Surrey Research Park PIONEERING MEDICAL TRANSFORMATION Home to a healthcare innovation cluster, tenant companies are putting Surrey on the world map with groundbreaking medical firsts A WORLD FIRST IN SATELLITE STREAMING Collaboration with University of Surrey turns research projects into viable innovations INSPIRING GENERATION ZA pioneering academy at the University of Surreyis creating a new generation of entrepreneurs

Surrey Research Park was founded in 1981 to create a fertile and supportive environment for start-ups, which remains key today. Surrey Research Park is now firmly established as a place where companies can innovate, evolve and grow, and it has adapted, refined and thrived as it has found its place in the fast-moving,digital economy.

As a dynamic and agile hub where exploration, experimentation and commercialisation of new business models can take place, Surrey Research Park generates the relationships, methods and tools to ensure a ‘speed to value’ advantage and impactful innovation. It harnesses the commercial power of innovation. It also plays a key role in business education at the University of Surrey, bringing together academia and business, students and entrepreneurs for greater relevance, knowledge-sharing and learning –a dynamic two-way flow of skills and ideas that givesour students hands-on experience they can feed backinto management education – and forward intotheir own careers.

FOSTERING A SPIRIT OF INNOVATION The trend for increased support for Research & Development means a new spirit of innovation and impact is in the air and research parks are set to play an ever more

significant role in delivering on strategy. They create the ideal business environment to support the opportunities and the entrepreneurs that make impact happen. And they bring together funding, ideas and people who aren’t afraid to take risks and experiment to find solutions to the grand challenges of our time.

Re-inventing innovation is never easy. It’s occurring more rapidly, requiring wider collaboration across disciplines and specialties, re-defining the concept of intellectual property into something more like capital to be invested, spread, traded and shared.

Technological advances and digital disruption do not exist in a vacuum; they underpin an emerging understandingof ‘the ecology of technology’, changing the way wedo business.

Digitisation of service delivery has been one of the most rapid and compelling trends of the past two decades and has spurred not just a technical revolution but also a cultural shift in what people now expect in service delivery - speed, accuracy and transparency. From large companies to game-changing university spin-outs like Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd, to start-ups with a single passionate individual and everything in between, Surrey Research Park is the cradle of invention and innovation.

At the University of Surrey, we prize the close relationship with our key partnerin the University family - Surrey Research Park. The Research Park’s innovativecollaborations with academia and business and the excellence of its companies

make it a jewel in Guildford’s crown and a role model for research parks worldwide.

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BUSINESS GROWTH OPPORTUNITIESAugmented reality

Virtual realityData

Digital biologyBiotech

MedicineNanotech

Digital fabricationNetworks

ComputingRobotics

Automation

INNOVATION PLATFORMSResource efficiency

Bio-economySynthetic biology

DigitisationDematerialisation data

SensorsQuantum computingArtificial intelligence

Health

SOCIAL CHANGE MARKETSUrbanisation

Personal empowermentEnvironmental change

LeadershipMobility

CommunicationsDemographic change

PLACE MATTERSDr. Malcolm Parry OBE, Surrey Research Park CEO, academic and pioneer of business incubation and development, is an expert in Science and Technology parks as ‘instruments in economic development’ for UNESCO and United Nations Economic Commission to Europe.

Malcolm recently presented at the 36th International Association of Science Parks (IASP) Conference, an event under the patronage of French President Emmanuel Macron. His presentation focused on host university engagement with science parksand innovation for the fourth industrial revolution, arguing that entrepreneurshipgives science its economic significance,not the other way around.

THE IMPORTANCE OFRESEARCH PARKSA proponent of the idea that ‘place matters’, that businesses need to be located in an environment to foster and encourage entrepreneurship – such as a research park, Malcolm firmly believes that new business growth opportunities lie in exponential technologies, innovative platforms and social change markets.

Science and Technology Parks (STPs) are able to support business incubation and early stage organisational growth via a myriad of initiatives and have gained reputations for providing the key infrastructure elements to access facilities that help share business risk.

Ideas are taken by entrepreneurs fromthe lab-bench or a metaphorical ‘drawingboard’, through proof of concept, viability, scalability, value and quality, finally arrivingin the market as a warrantable productor service.

Malcolm believes that supporting entrepreneurial scientists and engineers as they turn their ‘light-bulb moment’ into commercial success is key, but there are numerous challenges. Many commercial property landlords dislike the risks associated with the support of start-ups, they want to tie tenants into long leases.This provides the gap in the market for science and research parks to provide a depth and breadth of appropriate facilities such as co-working incubators, knowledge sharing events, business education andthe potential to secure funding in the formof a business accelerator.

According to Malcolm, whatever happens politically moving forwards, it is vital for theUK that we continue to evolve the STPmodel and embrace research and scienceled economies that actively support theglobal economy and society and help enhance the planet.

Surrey Research Park is a founder member of The World Technopolis Association (WTA), a multilateral international organisation aiming to establish cooperation to promote global business prosperity and the UK Science Park Association (UKSPA).

“The value of Research Parks as business enablers, acting

as both landlords and mentors is vital. In terms of the UK

economy, the Science and Technology Parks model has

been adopted so widely, there can be no question that these

initiatives are pivotal for the continued success of UK plc.”

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GOLD-I TAKES ON CHAMPION ROLE

Following an invitation by the UKTI (UK Trade and Investment) to be one of its Export Champions, global FinTech company, Gold-i has been providing advice and delivering a series of talks to UK-based businesses on how to be a successful exporter.

The role of the Export Champions is to mentor, motivate and assist other businesses across a range of sectors on their export journey, leading by example as they continue to win new international business and reach out to new markets themselves.

Gold-i was selected for this prestigious opportunity having grown a global client base in 33 countries, across all continents. The innovative trading software developer launched from Surrey Research Park eleven years ago and has subsequently opened up offices in China and Australia as part of its global expansion strategy.

The Rumba Foundation, a charity which supports pioneering veterinary care has donated a CT injector pump to the University of Surrey’s Veterinary Cancer Research Programme run from Fitzpatrick Referrals Oncology and Soft Tissue on Surrey Research Park.

“We are delighted to finance the purchase of equipment that takes diagnostic imaging to the next level. We have huge admiration for the ground-breaking work of Fitzpatrick Referrals and the University of Surrey’s Veterinary Cancer Research

Programme and this donationaligns with our own objective tohelp advance the frontiers ofanimal treatment in oncologyand other veterinary disciplines,” said Fiona Hindle, FoundingTrustee, Rumba Foundation.

The injector pump will provide improved image quality and supports Professor Nick Bacon’s work with the Veterinary Cancer Research Programme at the University of Surrey’s School of Veterinary Medicine wherehe holds a joint position asProfessor of Surgical Oncology.

A WORLD FIRST FOR ESEYE

Eseye, a leader in global Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity has launched the world’s first fully automated, direct IoT ‘Device-to-Cloud’ solution in partnership with international digital security company, Gemalto.

The joint solution, Intelligent Cloud Connect, simplifies the process of onboarding an IoT device into AWS

(Amazon Web Services) and is set to transform global IoT deployment. It simplifies IoT device design, connectivity, management security and billing, enabling new product development timelines to be reduced from two years to less than six months. Eseye has successfully connected over 1,000 device types through global cellular partnerships in over 190 countries. As part of its expansion, Eseye has doubled its premises on Surrey Research Park.

PRIMEVIGILANCE RECEIVES QUEEN’S AWARD FOR INTERNATIONAL TRADE

Surrey Research Park tenant, PrimeVigilance – a pharmacovigilance, regulatory and medical information service provider - has been awarded the UK’s most prestigious accolade, a Queen’s Award for Enterprise: International Trade 2019.

This award, presented by Her Majesty The Queen, recognises businesses that excel in overseas markets and can demonstrate sustained financial growth. PrimeVigilance’s award celebrates its outstanding services to pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies worldwide and year-on-year commercial success, further cementing its place as a global leader in pharmacovigilance and the collection of Real World Evidence data. It was also honoured with a Queen’s Award for Enterprise in 2014 for its substantial global growth and commercial success. The work performed by PrimeVigilance’s professional team helps to improve patients’ safety and outcomes.

GNOSYS JOINS FORCES WITH CANADIAN KINECTRICS GROUP

Following the acquisition of technology innovation accelerator Gnosys Global,Canadian life-cycle management services company Kinectrics Group has established its UK operations facility at Surrey Research Park to fast-track products and services to the European electricity utilities market.

Gnosys – a University of Surrey spin out - will provide Kinectrics with a technology framework to strengthen its early to mid-phase development capability to target Europe’s nuclear, renewables, electrical transmission and distribution industries.

Gnosys established its head office and laboratory on Surrey Research Park in 2010 and has extensive experience in leading large R&D projects and exploiting intellectual property rights within the energy sector.

FITZPATRICK’S VETERINARY CANCER RESEARCH RECEIVES FOUNDATION BOOST

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MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) hasbeen crowned winner of three prestigiousindustry awards, including two for its RemoveDEBRIS mission which, following a series of on-orbit tests, demonstrated activedebris removal technologies designed toclean up low Earth orbit.

Aviation Week’s 63rd Annual Laureate Awards, which honour extraordinary achievements in the global aerospace arena, selected SSTL’s RemoveDEBRIS mission as winner of its SPACE: Technology and

Innovation Award. In addition, the British Interplanetary Society crowned the RemoveDEBRIS consortium with the Sir Arthur C Clarke Award for Space Achievement: Industry Project Team.

Hot on the heels of these wins, a combined team from SSTL and Airbus Defence and Space was awarded a Bronze Medal in the Team category for outstanding contribution in the advancement of aerospace, science and engineering by the Royal Aeronautical Society. The team comprised of experts from all the fields necessary to design, build, launch and operate the UK’s first spaceborne radar imaging satellite.

FUNDING SUCCESS FOR SMART SEPARATIONS

Smart Separations, which has patented an innovative microfiltration (MF) technology, has secured a €1.12 milliongrant to support the research and production of its ceramic microfilter technology.

The grant was awarded in recognition of its continued efforts to create a sustainable and environmentally-friendly microfilter which changes the ways blood, water and air can be filtered, impacting areas such as pollution reduction and cancer research.

This follows on from a 2018 European Commission grant of €2.8 million, which enabled the organisation to increase its resources, employing 6 additional people as well as student support over the summer and contractors when required. Smart Separations now employs 21 people.

SETSQUARED RETAINS GLOBALTOP SPOT

The SETsquared Partnership has been ranked the global number one university business incubator for the third consecutive year by leading research and advisory firm, UBI Global.

Created in 2002 between five UK universities - including the University of Surrey, to specialise in growing tech start-ups through its incubation programmes, the Partnership was commended for demonstrating exceptional value for tech start-ups and the local ecosystem.

SETsquared has supported over 4,000 UK high-tech start-ups since its inception, helping them raise more than £1.8 billion of investment and creating £8.6 billion of economic impact to date, a figure which is set to rise to nearly £27 billion by 2030.

Each year an estimated £560 million in Gift Aid goes unclaimed by UK charities.

New Gift Aid intermediary product, Swiftaid, from SETsquared Surrey incubator company Streeva, gives UK residents the ability to automatically add Gift Aid to donations. Once registered with a connected card, Swiftaid can automate Gift Aid on future eligible donations, boosting them by 25% via HMRC. Currently Swiftaid works with contactless donations and the company will be adding direct debit, SMS and online capability in 2020, along with back-claiming on up to four years of historical Gift Aid.

Surrey Research Park innovator, Thomson Environmental Consultants has developed a new system for identifying microplastics in the marine environment. Its Principal Taxonomist, Dr Ruth Barnich believes there is a clear need to create a worldwide standard for the recording and classification procedure for oceanic microplastics.

Ruth recently presented a talk to an audience of international experts at the World Conference for Marine Biodiversity detailing her organisation’s solution. If this innovation is adopted, it willtransform the way the industry categorises microplastics, allowing clear identification and loggingto enable the tracking of different types and sizes of microplastics globally.

SOLUTION FOR IDENTIFYING PLASTICS IN OUR OCEANS

SWIFTAID HELPS UK CHARITIES AVOIDUNCLAIMED GIFT AID

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As part of our long and successful partnership with the Chamber of Commerce, Innovate Surrey interviewed Dr Adam Marshall, Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce about his views on the current business environment and the future of technology entrepreneurship in the UK.

What does a great UK business look like and what should the benchmarks be for our aspiring technology entrepreneurs?

The UK has a well-respected reputation around theworld for its innovation and entrepreneurial spirit. However, it is currently facing the biggest economic change in a generation and while the uncertaintymakes it difficult to plan for the future, times ofdisruption can also be an opportunity.

There is no one formula or benchmark that fits all entrepreneurs. Businesses will all have their own yardstick of success which can range from hitting funding targets, to growing their teams, to achieving success in international markets.

What will best equip the new generation coming through to survive and thrive in challenging times?

Seeking practical guidance and advice is the best way for firms to survive and thrive. Of course, nobody understands businesses better than other businesses. Peer-to-peer support is so important in learning from those that have navigated the obstacles already.

There are also a number of schemes that can help firms to maximise their potential and productivity. Innovate UK, High Value Manufacturing Catapults and R&D tax reliefs can give companies the support or leeway needed to boost their capacity for innovation.

What types of business does the UK economy need to thrive both domestically and on theworld stage?

The service sector is currently the main driver of growth in the UK, but a mix of businesses are needed across the economy to sustain and improve growth. During these challenging times, we need firms that can adapt and demonstrate their resilience. In changing conditions, those that have the foresight to try and prepare for the future and envisage the possible impacts on their operations or customers will be best placed to reap the rewards of success.

To help sustain the domestic economy we need more firms with a global outlook, as the UK’s trade performance continues to make a disappointing contribution to overall domestic growth. For the UK to thrive, we need innovative businesses that can take advantage of this disruptive opportunity to break into new markets and forge new relationships. Of course, there are risks involved in going global but those that take that leap onto the world stage are often rewarded with higher growth, productivity and profitability.

What interests you most about SurreyResearch Park?

I’ve been particularly interested in hearing about some of the innovations in the space, games and healthcare sectors, a number of which are highlighted in thefollowing pages.

GLOBAL OUTLOOKA MUST FOR UK ENTREPRENEURSHIP Surrey Research Park was delighted to be awarded The Chamber Member of the Year Award at Chamber of Commerce Awards. This was in recognition of the Research Park’s support to local businesses, helping to create opportunities for them to grow and flourish.

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A number of games development companies on Surrey Research Park are at the forefront of this technological revolution, using VR and AR to help organisations with process improvements, operational efficiencies and cost reduction.

Neil Johnston, Digital Creative Entrepreneur and Co-Founder of Rocketdesk, a co-working space at Surrey Research Park for start-up creative technology companies, explains, “One of the biggest VR success stories we have seen from Rocketdesk is Star Chart, a Virtual Reality planetarium which lets users explore the solar system. It is one of the world’s best selling VR apps. However, VR success is rare in the consumer market – there is no doubt that the demand for immersive technologies we are now seeing at Rocketdesk is coming from industry. The developers at Rocketdesk are able to use their extensive experience in games development to create groundbreaking technology which is transforming the way that organisations operate.”

Neil Johnston is also CEO and Founder of Vector Suite, developers of pioneering VR software for conceptual 3D design. He continues, “Our proprietary technology is being used in the automotive sector to replace 2D sketching. Cars have traditionally been designed by someone providing sketches on paper and giving these to a team to model. Vector Suite’s software enables designers to sketch immediately in the 3D space, to truly visualise the car that is being created and then export it for modelling. It reduces three weeks of traditional design time into one day. As part of the process, the designers are placed in a virtual world, they can sit in the car and share content with others to assess its viability. It’s completely transformative and the potential to roll this out to architects and product designers across all industries is huge.”

Richard Shafe, Marketing Manager at Diverse Interactive, a digital experience agency based on Surrey Research Park adds, “VR has certainly moved beyond the entertainment and games sector. Over the last 12-18 months, we have seen the technology mature and find its value within large organisations and their specific business functions. We are now seeing exciting development and understanding how VR and other immersive technology can help businesses overcome expensive and time-consuming activities.”

Richard Shafe continues, “A great example of this is a project we are currently delivering for a global commercial gas company. We have been appointed to produce a VR experience to improve driver safety performance as part of their health and safety training programme, saving the company the cost and inefficiency of bringing their 200 drivers to regular health and safety training days. Our pioneering VR technology immerses the drivers in an environment that they could only otherwise experience in real life. Each training experience lasts approximately 30 minutes and can be undertaken at the drivers’ usual lorry depot, rather than a full day’s offsite training. We are now talking to a number of transport and logistics companies about using VR to transform their health and safety training - the only way to do this in a truly meaningful way is through VR.”

According to PwC economists, Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) have the potential to deliver a $1.5 trillion boost to the

global economy by 2030. These immersive technologies are already beginning to take off - not amongst the games community, as

originally anticipated, but in the enterprise sector, improving the way that organisations operate and creating new customer experiences.

FLY USING VIRTUAL

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Surrey Research Park has a global reputation for healthcare innovation and excellence in both human and veterinary medicine and a number of tenant organisations are putting Surrey on the world map with groundbreaking medical firsts.

DEMENTIA BREAKTHROUGHSCurrently over 850,000 people in the UK have dementia and numbers are set to rise to over 1 million by 2025. Award-winning Surrey Research Park tenant Re:Cognition Health is leading the way in global patient centric Alzheimer’s research and trials from its Surrey Research Park clinic, providing patients with access to new-generation Alzheimer’s drugs througha number of leading global research studies.

ADVANCING CANCER DIAGNOSTICSPark tenant ANGLE plc, a world-leading liquid biopsy company, has developed a system with the potential to deliver profound improvements in clinical and health economic outcomes in the treatment and diagnosis of various forms of cancer. Solid tumor cancers, such as breast cancer and prostate cancer, shed cancer cells into the patient’s blood stream known as Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs). The Parsortix® system from ANGLE is able to capture and harvest CTCs from patient blood. This means that a simple blood test could be used to provide crucial medical information regarding the fluctuating status of a patient’s disease.

ANGLE recently announced positive results from both its US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) analytical and clinical studies for the Parsortix® system. ANGLE is now seeking FDA Class II classification and marketing authorisation for its use with metastatic breast cancer patients.

ANGLE Founder and Chief Executive, Andrew Newland, comments, “We believe there is a tremendous opportunity for ANGLE to secure the first ever FDA clearance for a platform that captures and harvests intact CTCs from patient blood for subsequent analysis - in the first instance for metastatic breast cancer. FDA regulatory clearance, considered the gold standard for approval of medical diagnostic systems globally, would competitively differentiate our Parsortix® liquid biopsy system and should lead to an acceleration in commercial adoption of the system in both research and clinical settings.”

UNLOCKING THE FULL POWER OF MEDICINEAnother Surrey Research Park innovator, SiSaf is the first company to develop a proprietary Bi-CourierTM technology that leverages the unique properties of elemental silicon to overcome the limitations of current drug technologies. A transformational drug company, SiSaf integrates therapeutic genes and drugs with its technology to improve their ability to target the organ or cells where they are required. SiSaf Bio-Couriers maximise the benefits and minimise the side effects of drug molecules and active ingredients. SiSaf encases therapeutic molecules in biologically friendly silicon and lipids to help protect and target them (often without injection) in the form of creams, eye drops and tablets which can get to the point of need effectively and safely.

SiSaf is currently focused on the safe and efficient delivery of gene therapeutics, a field of medicine which represents a dramatic shift in medical care. The manipulation of genetic switches is crucial to the future of human health, with the potential to treat and even cure a vast range of diseases such as cancer, cystic fibrosis, MRSA, muscular dystrophy and haemophilia. The accurate targeted delivery of genetic sequences remains challenging but pre-clinical studies have demonstrated that Bio-Couriers can safely and effectively deliver therapeutic genes to the eye without injection. This positions SiSaf at the forefront of a medical revolution.

P IONEERING MEDICAL

TRANSFORMATION

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Telesat, a leading global satellite operator and Vodafone Group commissioned the University of Surrey - pioneers in the development of 5G in the UK - to address the potential limitations with 5G in terms of signal delay and test a means of providing uninterrupted coverage and data streaming.

The University of Surrey partnered with SSTL, a tenant at Surrey Research Park who produce small low cost satellites including Low Earth orbiting telecommunications satellites which potentially provide lower latency, resulting in fewer time delays.

Together SSTL and the University of Surrey enabled the 5G connection to the Telesat LEO Phase 1 satellite, achieving the world’s first 5G connection for a LEO (low earth orbiting) satellite. By connecting the University of Surrey’s 5G network to the LEO satellite via a Telesat antennae, the team were able to send a variety of data from the University to the Telesat satellite and back. This included playing high quality video in both 4K and 8K, crucially enabling them to check the data rate and any delays reaching a user, as many 5G services require short delays in transmission.

The test confirmed that the LEO satellite – which orbits over Guildford every hour at around 400-1600km above the Earth’s surface – created less of a delay than a terrestrial system or a geostationary satellite. This has crucially confirmed that receiving high quality 4K and 8K video without modification, as well as faster internet browsing, streaming and downloads, is possible. Vodafone is potentially interested in using LEO satellites to provide coverage across the UK so that rural areas or even suburban areas, further from terrestrial masts, can receive 5G.

SATELLITE STREAMING

Businesses at Surrey Research Park are constantly collaborating with the University

of Surrey to turn research projects into viable innovations that add value to the UK economy

and to the wider global society. A great example of this is the partnership between Surrey Satellite Technology (STTL) and the University of Surrey’s

5G Project.

“Our satellite connected via a Telesat

antennae to the University of Surrey’s 5G

test bed network has provided conclusive

results. This is a major development in

terms of driving 5G adoption.”

A WORLD FIRST IN

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EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN AT SSTL,PROFESSOR SIR MARTIN SWEETING

“We worked with two students on issues relating to our

terrestrial and marine ecology work, including improving

training options for ecologists during the winter months

and increasing our efficiency in the field and office. Despite

the short time frame, the students came up with multiple

solutions, some of which we are working on developing

further. We are now in discussion with the University of

Surrey to explore further collaborations with their students.”

ROSS JOHNSON, BID AND INNOVATION MANAGER,THOMSON ENVIRONMENTAL CONSULTANTS

FROM UNIVERSITY OF SURREY UNDERGRADUATE TO SURREY INCUBATOR ENTREPRENEUR After gaining a degree in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Surrey, Sudanese national Tayeb (known as Ty) Hassan, stayed on at the University to embark on a Business MA to support his entrepreneurial ambition to start his own business.

How do we provide Generation Z, our current 18-25 year olds, with the skills to become the future science and technology entrepreneurs and innovators taking up residence at Surrey Research Park?

A pioneering academy at the University of Surrey – the first of its kind in Europe - launched by the Deputy Dean of Surrey Business School, Professor Andy Adcroft, is addressing this by creating a new generation of digital entrepreneurs. A number of tenants at Surrey Research Park have been involved with the initiative and are already reaping the benefits from offering their support.

Called the Surrey Innovation and Digital Enterprise Academy, (the Surrey IDEA), the aim of the academy is to equip its graduates with problem solving skills, interpersonal skills and technology prowess.

To help achieve this, six companies based on Surrey Research Park - Bidspot, Coinmode, Fitzpatrick Referrals, Ipros Cube, Robens Centre and Thomson

Environmental Consultants - each presented a challenge for the 30 students enrolled on the scheme to complete over a two week period, working in collaboration with the businesses, academics and specialist advisors.

The challenges, which all related to real issues experienced by these businesses, included how an international company can get a foothold in the UK market which is dominated by two giant players, how a technologically leading service can be developed in a new market, how to utilise bitcoin in a gaming environment and how a well-known niche player can prosper in a market dominated by corporates.

Malcolm Parry, CEO, Surrey Research Park, comments, “This is a fantastic example of our collaboration with the University of Surrey to drive entrepreneurship forward. In addition to coming up with innovative solutions for our tenant companies, over 20 of the course participants were offered work with the company they partnered with during the programme.”

GENERATION Z FOR THE STEM

WORKPLACE INSPIRING

During his Business MA he joined the Student Enterprise Team at the University of Surrey to gain insight and learn about business event opportunities. Kat Mack, Student Enterprise Manager at the University comments, “The first event he attended with us was 3DS, our 3 Day Startup programme for budding entrepreneurs. He was originally going to listen to others’ ideas and work with them, but at the last minute plucked up the courage to pitch his own idea. From 35 ideas pitched, seven were chosen, including Ty’s - that’s when he knew this was his calling.”

Following this first event, Ty attended a national hackathon called the Care Innovation Challenge, where his business idea was chosen as one of the finalists, leading to an invitation to pitch at the Department of Health and Social Care, which oversees the NHS. With mentoring, nurturing and guidance from the Surrey Enterprise team, The Wiggly Line Company was formed and on graduation, Ty became a member of the SETsquared Surrey incubator which is situated on Surrey Research Park.

The Wiggly Line Company aims to revolutionise overnight monitoring practices in the care home sector. Currently the norm is for care workers to physically check on residents hourly - this can lead to disrupted sleep, confusion and patient anxiety. Ty’s innovation uses in-bed sensors to monitor residents remotely, alerting carers when physical intervention is required. Current trials in Elizabeth Finn Homes Care Group will conclude in early 2020, when preparation will begin for the commercial launch.

“My progression from a student at the University of Surrey to Surrey Enterprise and now the incubator has resulted in invaluable guidance and advice. It has also provided me with access to a network of tech innovators to truly support my business ambitions,”said Ty Hassan, founder The Wiggly Line Company.

With bespoke entrepreneur training programmes and unrivalled access to a network of mentors, alumni, investors and corporate partners at the SETsquared Surrey incubator, Ty’s new business is set to flourish.

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INNOVATESURREY2020

“Innovation and learning are at the heart of what we do. We are constantly

looking at things in a unique way, only then can we start to make a difference.”

FOUNDER AND CEO OF SURREY RESEARCH PARK, DR MALCOLM PARRY

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